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First 'Intergalactic' Resistance Studies Conference

University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA

June 18-21, 2026 

Resistance Matter(s): Resistance Studies and the Material Turn

Anton Törnberg
Year of publication: 2013
DOI: 10.63961/rsm.2013.1.3
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Excerpt

After a period largely dominated by a bias on language, discourses and the social world, a material turn is slowly emerging in social theory, emphasizing the central role of materiality and material power. However, welcoming this new theoretical embrace of the social and the material, I argue that there exists a theoretical gap in the materiality literature when it comes to the concept of resistance. Few, if any, scholars have elaborated on what role material agency plays in practices of resistance. This also goes the other way around; resistance studies has been heavily influenced by the linguistic turn and is largely characterized by a preoccupation on immaterial cultural processes, generally neglecting how the material can act back and shape both social relations and practices of resistance. This article elaborates on how these fields can benefit from each other by sharing relevant insights and discusses what an increased focus on the material has to offer resistance studies.
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